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According to Bookies, 2021 will prove to be a crucial year for sports betting platforms like DraftKings. Around 19 states are expected to make a decision this year on whether or not to legalize sports betting either via a state legislature statute or voter referendum. If all the 19 states choose to make sports betting a legal practice, we would have more than double the amount of states this year that have legalized it. Meaning, 2021 will be a crucial year when it comes to the financial prospects of the industry leaders.
Furthermore, DraftKings and Flutter (the owner of FanDuel) will be looking forward to a rise in value, thanks to the investors who are planning various approvals. As states are permitted to tax sports betting and choose the tax percent, they can bag significant revenue from what was once considered illegal.
Nevertheless, these are just assumptions. It is still quite hard to predict which state will legalize sports betting and which won’t. Still, the odds of a few states opting for legalization are higher than the others. For instance, New York and Massachusetts have struggled to make sports betting legal for quite some years. Whereas mobile legislation bills were passed in Wyoming and Maryland in March 2021, and they are currently waiting for senate approval.
If we look at other states, like Kentucky, there are good chances that they might have good news for sports betting fans only in 2022, when the state legislature meeting will be held for over 30 days. With a vast number of sports betting enthusiasts, California will also have to wait until next year. State senator Bill Dodd has guaranteed to put a measure on the 2022 ballot.
What Does the Sports Betting Legislation Environment Look Like in the US?
In the past few years, the demand for legal sports betting has grown tremendously in the United States, particularly after the federal ban on single-game wagering was repealed by the Supreme Court in 2018.
Almost three years later, around 80 percent of states in the US have made sports betting a legal practice. Or, at least they have introduced legislation to achieve it. And, in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, sports betting legalization will prove to be an efficient way for states to deal with budget losses.
It isn’t surprising to know that people across the United States are wagering on sports whether or not sports betting is legal in their state. Bettors resort to unlicensed offshore sportsbooks to illegally wager on sports, which means a massive loss of profits for the government.
States that have understood the potential of this industry are hence trying to capture that revenue through a regulated market, which is better designed to find and solve issues and make gambling more appealing to state legislators across the country. By approving mobile and state-wide sports betting or even the more limited in-person wagering at sportsbooks, state governments get to earn significant profits in the form of taxes.
What Should You Know Going Forward?
Information regarding sports betting legalization in various states is great to have under your belt. However, going forward, all you need to know is that there are no federal laws controlling sports betting across the United States, both offline and online. This is also true for domestic and offshore sports betting. So now, it’s up to each state to decide whether or not to open up sports betting for the general public legally.
If you are interested in sports betting, ensure you stay on top of the legalization news in the state you reside in. If wagering on sports isn’t legal in your state, you can always head to an authorized state-regulated sportsbook in your neighboring state or use a legal online sports betting site. To help you out, here is a list of the states where sports betting is legal.
